I first heard the term hothousing in the discussions of what parents in NYC do to get their kids into G&T, Hunter or private school. A Manhattan parent who wants to optimize where "they" (and it's meant as a family term) go to school has their kid take the olsat for public GT, the modified SB5 for Hunter, and the ERB which is most of the WPPSI. This is all done in a 6 month period and includes "playdates" if you are going private. Some parents take their kids in cold to all these tests, some get them into "academic" preschools, and some prep with workbooks, sill others take practice tests with a hired teacher, some send their kids to prep centers, and some go so far as to buy the tests online. Hunter is actually thinking of designing their own test due to the cheating. So hothousing in this context is getting your kid to achieve the magic numbers on the test without regard for whether the child would then be able to function in the school. Plenty of parents do not see these school as having signficantly different approaches or pace but rather just better stuff, in terms of extras or the best teachers. Also many state that the tests don't test real capacity at 4 so parents perceive it as a test of school readiness which of course can be prepped for. These are usually the people who believe it all evens out at 3rd grade or that early reading doesn't signify anything. In this context, hothousing is all about the parents, just like tiger moms, that the parent has a driving need to have the kid in a certain school or being able to brag about little johnny knowing his letters first.
In my intial posts after joining the board, I mentioned how guilty I felt for not realizing his behavior and desperation for tv was all about a need for new inputs - I was literally starving him by not providing the information his exponential development needed in that moment - instead of a growth spurt he had a brain spurt but I had no idea. We started going to the library weekly bringing home 30 books or more, working very quickly from picture books to nonfiction to chapters. it calmed him, his behavior changed almost overnight and his development astonished us. I think you can make kids learn rote even when they are not ready and its not pleasant. i think you can make kids who are optimally gifted perform well on tests with workbooks and focus by kid and parent - and the kid likely enjoys it. Is this what I did or do - no way - I provide sustainance which allows him to grow and develop. In those other scenarios, if the parent stopped, what affect would it have on the dc, for the forced, probably relief, for the OG, probably mild disappointment - for my DS, if I stopped providing all this information . . . he would either withdraw into his own head or go out of control behaviorally. He cannot fulfill his need for information without our help - so we provide it.
I never get to say this IRL, guess it builds up
DeHe
